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On the construction of low-energy cislunar and translunar transfers based on the libration points

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Abstract

There exist cislunar and translunar libration points near the Moon, which are referred to as the LL 1 and LL 2 points, respectively. They can generate the different types of low-energy trajectories transferring from Earth to Moon. The time-dependent analytic model including the gravitational forces from the Sun, Earth, and Moon is employed to investigate the energy-minimal and practical transfer trajectories. However, different from the circular restricted three-body problem, the equivalent gravitational equilibria are defined according to the geometry of the instantaneous Hill boundary due to the gravitational perturbation from the Sun. The relationship between the altitudes of periapsis and eccentricities is achieved from the Poincaré mapping for all the captured lunar trajectories, which presents the statistical feature of the fuel cost and captured orbital elements rather than generating a specified Moon-captured segment. The minimum energy required by the captured trajectory on a lunar circular orbit is deduced in the spatial bi-circular model. The idea is presented that the asymptotical behaviors of invariant manifolds approaching to/traveling from the libration points or halo orbits are destroyed by the solar perturbation. In fact, the energy-minimal cislunar transfer trajectory is acquired by transiting the LL 1 point, while the energy-minimal translunar transfer trajectory is obtained by transiting the LL 2 point. Finally, the transfer opportunities for the practical trajectories that have escaped from the Earth and have been captured by the Moon are yielded by the transiting halo orbits near the LL 1 and LL 2 points, which can be used to generate the whole of the trajectories.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are very grateful to the anonymous reviewer for helpful comments and suggestions on revising the manuscript. The research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11172020), the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program: 2012AA120601), Talent Foundation supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Aerospace Science and Technology Innovation Foundation of China Aerospace Science Corporation, and Innovation Fund of China Academy of Space Technology.

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  1. Department of Aerospace Engineering, School of Astronautics, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, China

    Ming Xu, Yan Wei & Shijie Xu

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  1. Ming Xu
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  2. Yan Wei
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  3. Shijie Xu
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Correspondence to Ming Xu.

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Xu, M., Wei, Y. & Xu, S. On the construction of low-energy cislunar and translunar transfers based on the libration points. Astrophys Space Sci 348, 65–88 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-013-1563-6

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